The muted earth tones in this necklace make me think of the soft light at dawn or dusk in the desert. I love the contrast between the earthy jasper beads and the sparkly Swarovski bicone crystals. Even though they contrast, it’s the colors that make them work together.

This design concept of adding smaller beaded sections to a necklace fascinates me.

My inspiration for this piece was Jude Wroblewski’s bib style necklace featured over at FireMountainGems. Her piece has over a dozen scalloped strands and those really are the focus of the necklace.

Since I wanted my picture jasper beads to be the focus, I kept the scallops more subdued.

Have fun designing your own necklace with as many or as few scalloped strands as you like. Make them full and lush like Jude’s, more restrained like mine or just all your very own. 🙂

Enjoy the video and happy creating!

You can watch the Mojave Sparkles Necklace Video Tutorial over at YouTube.

Materials:

• 8 15mm x 20mm oval jasper beads
• 9 5mm antique gold plated corrugated beads
• 60 4mm Swarovski crystal bicone beads (I used a combination of their color mix “Mojave” and crystal clear)
• 8 inches 3mm brass spacer beads
• 8 inches chain, cut into two 4-inch pieces
• 1 or 2 jump rings
• lobster clasp
• bead stringing wire
• 8 wire protectors
• 8 crimp beads
• 8 crimp covers (optional)

Tools:

• wire cutters
• chain nose pliers
• crimping pliers or the One Step Crimper
• Bead Stoppers

Directions:

1. Cut a 5-inch piece bead stringing wire. Onto bead stringing wire slide a crimp, then slide wire into one end of wire protector and out the other. Slide the wire end back through the crimp and bring crimp to within 1/8-inch of wire protector. Flatten crimp with One Step Crimper or crimping pliers and squeeze ends of wire protector together. Trim shorter piece of wire close to crimp.  If desired, cover crimp with a crimp cover by picking up with crimping pliers, sliding over flattened crimp and gently squeezing pliers. Use crimping pliers to shape cover into a round bead shape if necessary.
2. String 20 4mm Swarovski crystal bicone beads onto bead stringing wire and repeat step 1 to finish end of wire. Repeat 2 more times to make 3 small strands of crystals.
3.  Add a Bead Stopper to one end of a 20-inch piece of bead stringing wire. String on 5mm spacer>jasper bead>5mm spacer>jasper bead>5mm spacer>end of one crystal strand>jasper bead>5mm spacer>end of second crystal strand>jasper bead>end of first crystal strand>5mm spacer>end of third crystal strand>jasper bead>end of second crystal strand>5mm spacer>jasper bead>end of third crystal strand>5mm spacer>jasper bead>5mm spacer>jasper bead>5mm spacer.
4. To each end of stringing wire add 4 inches of 3mm brass spacers. Finish the ends as in step one, adding end link of a 4-inch piece of chain before bringing wire back through crimp.
5. Use a jump ring to add a lobster clasp to one end of chain. If needed, add a jump ring to other end of chain.

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